Chaos Under Heaven: The Shocking Story Behind China's Search for Democracy by Thomas Gordon

Author:Thomas, Gordon [Thomas, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

SAME DAY, SAME TIME

Sacramento, California

Sue, the Chinese postgraduate student, and Rod, her boyfriend, had abandoned any thought of sleep. Instead they sat in their pajamas on the couch before the TV set, switching channels in the hope of catching further news from China. On the coffee table before them were a radio tuned to an all-news channel and ajar almost filled with dollar bills, Sue’s first efforts at fund-raising among her fellow Chinese. There was already over $1,000 in the jar. More was promised. Every donation had been entered in a notebook.

“There’s a tremendous feeling of wanting to do something,” Sue told Rod. “It’s like being back home.”

Sue wanted to collect $5,000 before she left for Beijing. But she had no idea how the money should be used.

There had been nothing on TV about China since the eleven o’clock news. But at midnight the radio commenced a live report from outside Beijing University, saying that several of the student leaders had fled their dormitory headquarters and gone into hiding, fearing they were about to be arrested. The radio reporter described how the campus gates were padlocked. On the railings someone had put up a poster: IN GOD WE TRUST.

Rod turned to Sue. “It’s going to be very dangerous, and it could be even more dangerous when you get there.”

“It’s always been dangerous to protest in China,” Sue replied. She tried to sound reassuring. “But don’t worry. Nothing they do can be as bad as the Cultural Revolution.”

Once more she took him back to that dark, turbulent time in her people’s history. Then, the authorities had imposed a real reign of terror. What was happening now in China was “probably no more than an intricate game of bluff and counterbluff,” she said. “Both sides will probably go on pushing hard. But if it comes to real violence, they’ll also both pull back. No one in China today wants violence.”

Rod said he really hoped she was right.

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